


Like Cats and Dogs

by nitzimetzi



Category: Avengers, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider (2007), Warrior Cats - Fandom, X-Men
Genre: Father/Mother/Son Incest, Father/Son Incest, Fuck Or Die, Genderfluid, Incest, MAJOR Blackheart Whump, Mother/Son Incest, Pan turning to Caedosexual, Post-Apocalypse, Straight turning to Pan, sexpollen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:53:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26581699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nitzimetzi/pseuds/nitzimetzi
Summary: Well- originally this started out with a really dumb thought.What if Mephisto turned Blackheart and Johnny into animals and they have to team up to get their bodies back?And then this monster of a fanfic apparently turned self-aware.Because I have to admit that I have written it, but for some parts of it, and some unexpected turns, I literally was only the medium.This is drama, hate, violence, love, sex, psychological and physical torture, its cats and demons and angels and found family.Also, for this to work out, the Ghost Rider movie is set after Thor Ragnarok on the Marvel timeline.This is unbeta´d, and although I´m fairly good at finding spelling mistakes, It might take a while before I polished it up from the hand written thing it is right now to something I can upload without shame.As it is now, there are a few... lets say, minor slip-ups logic wise.But I´ll get there.
Relationships: Blackheart/Johnny Blaze, Blackheart/Mephistofeles, Blackheart/OC, Johnny Blaze/Roxanne Simpson, OC/Mephistofeles
Kudos: 2





	Like Cats and Dogs

**Author's Note:**

> For my best friend Sammy, who really breathed life into Mephisto and Thistle, who was with me in this for better and worse, who read all the bullshit my brain spewed out and is still a constant source of inspiration and also of reining in for me!
> 
> For Jenny and Cara and Kristin and my mom, who read my stuff and commented on it more or less guidingly, and also
> 
> For rigormorton32, who convinced me finally to translate and upload the beginning at least.
> 
> I hope you like this!

Like cats and dogs

Book 1  
Family ties

Prologue

It was in the middle of the dead of night. Clouds covered the sky and fog billowed thickly through the streets. A lone lantern cast its pale light on the footpath in front of it, too dim to brighten the night.  
The long-haired, snow-white cat ran silently and deliberately along on top of the the narrow wall, ears pricked up, the bushy tail swinging restlessly to and fro, as if she suspected something.  
Suddenly the cat paused, hastily licking its fluffy fur when there was a loud bang. The white staggered and fell from the wall into the light of the street lamp, where she lay motionless. Then her limbs appeared to be stretching, the cat seemed to grow and deform, until finally a woman lay on the asphalt, that looked young despite being so old.  
Wrapped in a thin, light gray cloak, her blonde, almost white hair fell loosely around her shoulders and she leaned on her forearms, while her bright, blue eyes looked contemptfully at the man who was, leaning on a walking stick, stepping into the cone of light.  
When their eyes met, memories ran through the man that happened far too long ago.  
"Mistoffelees." Her voice was cold and she used his cat name quite naturally. "What do you want?"  
"You know what happened?" He enjoyed being able to look down at her from above, to use his power to the full.  
"That's none of my business anymore." The hatred in her voice would have hurt him once, but that was long ago.  
"You know I have to punish him, don't you?" He wanted to know.  
She looked down. "Do what you can't help, that does not concern me anymore." She repeated and added with a touch of defiance: "This is my life now."  
The man barely smiled. "Oh, it may concern you more than you might like."  
She jerked her head up and returned his lordly gaze without blinking and with eyes full of cold anger. "Whatever you do, keep my daughter out of it. She has suffered enough already."  
"Does our suffering ever end?" He loved the way the expression in the blue eyes changed. The woman jumped up and came so close to the man that the tips of their noses almost touched.  
"Let me tell you one thing," She hissed. "When I find out that you are responsible for what happened, you will see a different side of me."  
He leaned forward a little and whispered in her ear: "I can hardly wait."  
She backed away, hissing, and sheer hatred spoke from her eyes. Her features began to change again, she seemed to shrink and her blond hair turned to fur.  
The white cat jumped out of the pale beam of light back into the mist and merged with the shadows without looking back.  
Mephistofeles smiled.

The stylized skull on the tip of the elegant cane grinned as if to express the malicious pleasure its owner was feeling. At the neatly dressed man's feet lay a thin black cat. The animal's eyes were an unusual, light ice blue and they too sparkled with hatred.  
The man slowly leaned down.  
One of the cat's front paws twitched slightly, claws protruded and it hissed menacingly, the thin, pointed teeth of the small predator getting exposed.

Mephistofeles smiled tightly.  
"If you want to get your original shape back ... I advise you to team up with Johnny Blaze. And pray that you meet the deadline. Remember, Blackheart. Six hundred and sixty-six hours. After that, there's no turning back."  
The animal's flat, black-coated belly rose and fell with quick breaths. The tip of the tail twitched and an angry growl came from the small throat.  
Mephistofeles straightened up again and looked at the black and brown Doberman, which was apparently just waking up.  
"Oh, and ... I hope you're convincing, son. Those jaws can break your spine in one bite."  
Laughing darkly, the prince of darkness disappeared, leaving his son, who was too weak to get up, with what was probably a very angry fighting dog.

It took Blackheart a moment to fight his way up on all fours.  
Just in time, because now the Doberman got up as well and turned around himself once. Then he saw the black cat.  
Blackheart opened his mouth, no, his muzzle, to say something, but before he could even utter a meow, Blaze charged at him with an angry bark.  
Any weakness was instantly forgotten. The black cat jumped straight up in the air with a startled shriek, claws extended defensively.  
Then he was seen fleeing out of the alley, clamoring loudly, the yapping attack dog on his heels.

He sprinted across the street and jumped from a fence onto the roof of a garage.  
There the animal crouched and peered down.  
The massive Doberman leaned his front paws against the side wall of the garage barking, jumping, turning in circles and presenting the sight of a creature mad with rage.  
Blackheart flattened his ears back against his head, pulled his lips back so that every single fang could be seen, and hissed like a viper.  
Johnny sat down on the ground, growling, without taking his eyes off him.  
Blackheart eyed his opponent, also growling; his tail swaying back and forth nervously. Blaze just seemed to be waiting for the cat to move to start raging again.

"Honestly!" Blackheart growled. "That's no way! You could at least have let me say something, you drooling fleabag!"  
Johnny listened up. "We can speak?!"  
"Well, what do you think I'm doing here? Play the piano ?!"  
The Doberman narrowed its eyes and growled menacingly. Blackheart hissed and swiped at the air in the direction of the dog with his claws extended.  
"Get lost! Don't you have anything better to do ?!"  
"Since I only look like this because of YOU, NO! I DO NOT!"  
"What, 'Since I only look like this because of you' ?! I wasn't the one who changed you, that was Mephistofeles !!"  
"YOU were the one who annoyed him! YOU made him think that he had to raise you with crazy methods, YOU alone are the brat whose antics brought me into this situation!"

Blackheart jumped gracefully from the roof of the garage and balanced lightly over the fence.  
"Did you just call me 'brat'?" He asked, menacingly calm.  
Johnny growled murderously, his pointed snout twitched and a thread of saliva dripped from the massive jaws.

With a daring leap, the black cat threw himself at Johnny, claws out, teeth bared.  
Johnny was waiting for him, lifted his paw and knocked him out of the air. While Blackheart tumbled to the ground, the Doberman lunged at him and opened its mouth.  
Screeching and kicking, Blackheart worked every reachable place of his opponent with his claws to keep the dagger-like teeth away from him.  
The massive jaws shot down.  
The cat gave a shrill squeak and thrashed around in even more panic. His front paw got caught between Johnny's teeth and as he scratched his tongue with his claws, the fangs dug into his flesh. Blackheart flattened his ears and howled in pain.  
Johnny let go.  
Whimpering loudly, the cat squirmed out from under the Doberman, hobbled to one side on three legs and sat down to examine his paw. It was bleeding.  
Blackheart trembled like a leaf from whiskers to tail.  
"I would clean this up if I were you," Johnny growled, shaking himself and turning to leave.  
"Where are you going?", Blackheart yelped, hopping three-legged after him.  
"Mephistofeles said we have to work together to get out of this situation!"  
"Mephistofeles said we have to work together!", Johnny mimicked him.  
"Do you seriously think I care about what your daddy says ?! As if I needed YOU for anything! Sayonara, Hobblestiltskin!"  
And with that he accelerated and dashed away.  
"Johnny!" Blackheart yelled angrily. His tail whipped. "Yes, off you go! Who needs you anyways!"  
He turned and hobbled into a back alley where there were a few brightly colored cardboard boxes.  
He crawled into one of these boxes and lay down to carefully lick his bleeding paw clean. His tail still flicked back and forth angrily.  
When he heard faint footsteps approaching his hiding place, his eyes narrowed and a hostile growl rose from his chest.  
"Piss off Blaze!" He hissed.  
The one flap of the box covering the opening was lifted up and Blackheart looked into the glowing, amber eyes of a giant tiger cat.  
His eyebrows rose in surprise.  
"That is MY box!" The cat hissed poisonously at him. "And the territory of the BlackwayClan! Who are you and what do you want here ?!"  
Blackheart narrowed his ice blue eyes to tight slits.  
"First of all, I would ask for a different tone of voice, Madame! Who do you think you are talking to ?!"  
"To an injured, loud-mouthed, puny stray who is sitting in MY turf in MY box!" The cat hissed. "Get out, now! Or need I see you off?!"  
"I dont see your name on it?"  
"You see me right here in front of you! Are you going to get out of there now ?!"  
Blackheart smiled with icy arrogance.  
"Nah, I dont think so."  
The cat jumped into the box, the box closed. It rumbled. The box shook violently. A hiss, a painful, angry yowl, more rumbling and more wobbling. A screech.  
The box tipped over and fell on its side with a thud.  
A black little cat rolled out and struggled to get up again.  
The tabby followed immediately.  
"Well? Had enough?" She hissed.  
Blackheart flattened his ears and came up to her, tail whipping. The cat stood proudly, fixing a hard stare at him.  
The black lifted its injured paw and touched her with it.  
Nothing happened.  
Blackheart cocked his head.  
He lifted his paw and touched the other cat again.  
Nothing.  
"Why doesn't that work?" He thought perplexed. Where were his powers ?!  
"May I ask what you are doing?" Hissed the tabby.  
"That- I... Well..."  
"BlackwayClan, this one wants to get some manners beaten into him!!"  
There was movement in the shadows around Blackheart and the Tabby. There were other cats - five, eight, twelve - fourteen slim figures formed a circle around the two opponents. Claws scratched the asphalt, whiskers twitched aggressively, tails whipped.,  
"Hell shit!" Blackheart breathed and swallowed.  
Fifteen to one outnumbered, injured and without powers. They would tear him to pieces. Time to get diplomatic.  
"Oh... It's already so late... I'd better be on my way..."  
While he uttered the humiliating words, he backed away from the tabby, into the circle of cats. Immediately they huddled together and formed a wall of bodies.  
"You had your chance. Now you'll get taught a lesson, Aristocat!"  
The huge cat smiled meanly.  
"Get him!"  
Blackheart disappeared under a wave of cat bodies and he screamed at the top of his lungs before paws rammed into his stomach and took his breath away. Claws dug into his fur, tore out entire clumps, paws pounded him, teeth pinched his ears and tail, angry howls ringed painfully.  
"JOHNNY!!" The tom screeched as loud as he could. He kicked, giving back as best he could, but with every bite, blow, and scratch he took, he got weaker.  
"JOHNNY, PLEASE!!" he yelped. One blow struck the side of his head and he saw stars.  
A cat had bitten into his tail, apparently with the intention of chewing it off.  
Another sat on his back, claws in his sides.  
"HELP ME!!" He shouted desperately.  
And then he was there.  
nm A dogs barking had never been so welcome to Blackheart.  
The massive Doberman drove into the cats like a thunderbolt, swept them left and right with powerful blows and barked threateningly.  
Screeching, the animals dashed apart and fled back into the shadows, leaving a torn body lying on its side.  
The tabby jumped onto the overturned box with an elegant leap and looked down at Johnny.  
"Not bad ... for a dog." She purred. "We'll let you go. This time."  
And with that she jumped away and also merged with the shadows.

Johnny trudged over to the still black fur mound, bowed his head, and sniffed it before nudging it with his paw.  
Blackheart blinked slowly and moved his torn ears.  
"I don't want to hear one word," He croaked.  
"What. No 'Thank you for coming back and saving me'?"  
"No." Blackheart sighed. "You need me."  
Johnny was speechless at that much arrogance.  
The demon in the cat's fur had screamed for his help and now had the audacity to claim that Johnny had helped him out of self-interest and not out of good-naturedness.  
"Can you walk?" He asked after a moment.  
"Don't touch me," Blackheart growled.  
He staggered on three legs and stood up swaying.  
"I really didn't mean to. Let's go."  
The cat hobbled alongside the dog with clenched teeth and narrow eyes.  
Johnny adjusted his pace to that of the demon, which slowed their making headway considerably. He would have loved to just leave him behind. Or to carry him.  
After about half a mile, Blackheart didn't look good at all anymore.  
His tail dragged over the ground behind him, his ears drooped, his nose almost touched the asphalt and the otherwise bright, blue eyes were cloudy and half-closed. Nonetheless, he made no sound and hobbled forward.  
Johnny shook his head at so much damn pride.  
"Should I maybe..." He began hesitantly and stopped.  
"No!" Blackheart hissed and swiped at him with his injured paw, causing the cat to wince in pain.  
"Goddamn!" He exclaimed.  
Johnny bared his teeth briefly. "Well then suit yourself!"  
They managed half a mile more before the Doberman stopped again.  
Blood ran in thin, ruby-red rivulets over Blackheart's black fur, the little tom was trembling with exertion and his eyes had taken on a feverish glow. Johnny decided it was enough.  
He stepped up to Blackheart, who immediately raised his paw again and hissed. The sudden movement caused the demon to stagger and fall.  
"Leave me the hell alone, Blaze!" He growled angrily and rolled over on his stomach, panting.  
"No." Johnny growled. "And now shut up, or I'll bite you in the other paw too."  
With these words he stepped behind the cat, held his breath, ducked down and pushed his muzzle between its back legs and under its stomach.  
"Ah!" Blackheart squealed in horror. "What in the three devils names are you doing?!"  
Johnny straightened up and the cat slid over his head onto his back.  
"Hold on." The Doberman commanded harshly.  
"Put me down, right now! Who do you think you are, that you think you can-?!"  
"HOLD ON." Johnny repeated loudly. "Quiet now!"  
The cat fell silent and obeyed.  
A few meters further he let his head drop on Johnny's back and shortly afterwards he was sound asleep.  
A red trail marked the way of the two, ruby drops ran over the fur of the Doberman, who silently carried his enemy step by step towards an unknown destination.

First, Blackheart had to get back on his feet.  
For this they needed cleanliness, medicine and rest.  
Johnny had given up on wondering about himself. Why he cared about Blackheart, based on the vague assumption that he would become himself again.

Just as he was about to turn into a side street, a rat shot across the asphalt in front of his paws. Hot on the rat's heels was a gold-skinned cat, which almost tripped over its own paws when it became aware of the giant Doberman.  
Johnny involuntarily took a step back.  
"Wow!" The cat pushed out. "Big dog!"  
"Cat?" Johnny greeted carefully and eyed her. She flattened her ears.  
"Peace, dog. I won't hurt you, you won't hurt me. Can we handle it like that? Yes? That would be great."  
"I don't want any problems." Johnny explained quickly. "I already have enough worries."  
He paused. "Do you happen to know how I can get to the nearest vet?"  
"Vet ?! Do you have worms or what?"  
Johnny wrinkled his snout.  
"No, but a tick." He thought. "He's on top of me."  
"Not exactly." He replied, turning so the cat could see Blackheart.  
Understanding lit up in her blue eyes.  
"How did he manage THAT?!"  
"Attacked." Blaze growled. "Bunch o' cats."  
For a moment the Golden said nothing.  
"Wait here!" She ordered then and dashed away.  
"Where are you going?!" Johnny called after her, but got no answer.  
When she wasn't back after about five minutes, he became restless. Blackheart was getting heavier and, it seemed, colder and colder. Where was that mysterious cat ?!  
After another five minutes, there was still no sign of her coming back.  
Johnny decided to walk on.  
He trotted off, the end of the alley firmly in view.  
"Hey! Stop!"  
The Doberman turned. There she came.  
The Golden jumped to him with great leaps, something gray in her mouth.  
When she got to him, she put it down and twitched her whiskers.  
"I told you to wait!"  
"Where have you been so long?"  
"I got cobwebs to stop the bleeding. Put him down."

Reluctantly, Johnny lay down on the pavement and shook himself a little, causing Blackheart to slide off his back and tumble to the ground.  
He didn't move. A stripe of blue was visible between the half-closed eyes and a pointed tooth had pushed in front of the lower lip.  
"He looks bad..." Johnny remarked.  
"Ah, he´ll manage. With that paunch!"  
Blaze opened his mouth to reply that Blackheart, on the contrary, was very thin, when he noticed that the Golden was so skinny he could count her ribs.  
In comparison, Blackheart actually had a paunch.  
The cat bustled around the tom, putting cobwebs on his wounds.  
A fat fly came buzzing and sat on one of the demon's blood-caked ears. Johnny swiped at it angrily and it whirred away again.  
Blackheart lay motionless. Only the slight rise and fall of his chest made it clear that he was still alive.  
Johnny cocked his head thoughtfully.  
"Pick him back up, we have to move on!" Commanded the Golden. "A friend of mine is in the city park, we will get him herbs that will help."  
Obediently, Johnny rolled his enemy onto his stomach with his paw and then lifted him onto his back using the established method.  
The cat scuttled off and he trundled after her leisurely.  
He paid little attention to his surroundings, concentrating only on staying behind the Golden, which led him determinately through narrow streets.  
Through bright backyards they finally came to the parking lot of a shopping center and from there onto a sidewalk that led along a street.  
"Okay. It's getting a little hairy now." Warned the Golden and worked the asphalt with her paws.  
"We have to get over there without the monsters catching us!"  
"Monsters?" Johnny repeated.  
A car roared past them, the headwind making their fur fall back in waves.  
"Them."  
From a Doberman's eye level, cars were about twice the size and actually looked like monsters.  
"Okay..." He replied uncertainly.  
"Don't worry, big guy. I know my way around here!"  
The cat grinned. "Stay close behind me!"  
Johnny closed his eyes for a moment. "You can´t live in fear." He said to himself.  
"I beg your pardon?"  
"Nothing."

The next car sped by.  
"NOW!" Yelled the Golden and shot off.  
Johnny followed hastily. Then he felt Blackheart begin to slip. "Ooh, no, NO!" He yelped and tossed his bum up to get the tom back in place, but that made its limp body slide over the other side of Johnny's back and slapping onto the ground. In the middle of the street.  
"Crap!" Howled the Doberman and spun around.  
Red metal flashing in the sun, a silver grille. Johnny threw himself to the side.  
The car passed right over Blackheart without touching him.  
White paint, a huge license plate! Johnny stumbled backwards.  
HOOOOONK!! Car! Green and huge!  
Blaze did a somersault in his haste to escape and his snout landed right in front of Blackheart. He quickly dug his teeth into the loose skin on his neck and pulled him up.  
Now there was no more cars to be seen. Taking a deep breath, as well as he could with a mouthful of fur, Johnny trotted to the other side of the street, where the Golden sat and stared at him with huge eyes, rigid with shock.  
Blaze felt his legs shake. In fact, his whole body was trembling.  
"What?" He asked in an attempt to sound casual. Worked pretty well.  
"Man, you must really love him." The Golden meowed. "Or your ancestors must love YOU. I thought there was gonna to be a crash any second."  
"Yes? Well ...there wasn't. Are we moving on?"  
The cat's whiskers twitched in amusement as she turned and led the Doberman away.

Oil shimmered in small puddles on the sidewalk. Johnny avoided them carefully, just as he avoided the legs of the occasional people who cast astonished looks at the colorful troop.  
The golden set her paws in front of each other as if walking on a tight rope, her tail held straight up, moving along the bushes and trees that had been planted to their right for noise protection. She turned at a power box and slid through the underbrush. Johnny followed her, still carrying Blackheart in front of him, and they came out on a lawn on which, surrounded by gravel paths, stood a small fountain.  
"We're almost there." Announced the Golden.  
Suddenly there was a rustling next to them and a light, darkly-striped cat's head emerged from a rose bush.  
The golden one turned her head. "There you are, Earth. Come out, the dog is a softie."  
The striped cat narrowed her green eyes suspiciously and scrutinized the Doberman as he stood there, the motionless tom in his mouth.  
"Softie?" She repeated. "Okay, if you say so..." She pushed herself out of the bush and trotted towards the golden one. Then she sat down and turned to Johnny.  
"Hello." She meowed. "I am Earth."  
"Fffh-ngi."  
"Pardon?"  
The Doberman put Blackheart to the ground. "Johnny." He repeated.  
"Ah."  
"And by the way, I'm called Thistle."  
The golden one stuck her head in the bushes and seemed to be looking for something. Earth glanced at her back for a moment, then turned back to Johnny, looking at the black fur mound at his feet.  
"...And who is this?" She asked.  
"That's Blackheart-" Blaze hesitated, looking for the right word. "A colleague of mine."  
"How did your colleague manage to be made into crows food?"  
"He was attacked by a group of cats."  
Earth glanced sideways at Thistle, which was still moving around in the bushes.  
"Was the leader a tall tabby?" She then asked.  
Johnny pricked up his ears. "Yes! Do you know her?"  
Earth hissed. "Her name is Canine. Her and the cats of the BlackwayClan have been terrorizing the whole city for months!"  
Thistle emerged from the bush and spat a clump of herbs onto the ground.  
"Damn it! You were really lucky there." Her tail lashed furiously. "But this'll mean trouble later."  
"Great." Johnny growled angrily. "That's what I get for saving that bastard's fur!"  
Earth twitched her ears in bewilderment.  
Johnny was not willing to tell his crazy life story to a strange cat.  
He turned to the flame-colored Thistle.  
"Are those the herbs?" He asked.  
"What else?"  
Blaze snorted disapprovingly. "Then give them to him!"  
Thistle glared at him. "Relax!"  
She went over to Blackheart and removed the cobwebs. Meanwhile, Earth was chewing up the herbs and then pressing the mass onto the wounds.  
"Hold him down, that could burn." She warned Johnny.  
"Godsmother is a pretty-"  
Blackheart's blue eyes opened wide. He gasped for breath, opened his mouth- and screamed.  
Johnny stumbled back.  
"Hold him!" Earth yelled again, trying to keep the chewed up herbs on Blackheart's flank. The tom writhed in pain, hitting the air and kicking. With joint strength, Thistle and Earth nailed him to the ground and Earth relentlessly pressed the Godsmother onto his wounds.  
The piercing yowls became more and more painful and pathetic.  
Johnny cringed as compassion took a hold of him. He remembered well how it had felt when the Ghost Rider had taken possession of him the first time. He wouldn't even wish such a thing on his enemy.  
Screeching and twitching, Blackheart struggled to get the cats' paws off himself, rearing up and scraping his claws through the grass and earth.  
"It's burning!!" He howled. "Oh mother, I'm dying!!"  
"He can't be that badly off!" Johnny snorted.  
Earth glared at him with flashing green eyes. "Shut up!"  
Blackheart's movements weakened.  
Whimpering and trembling, he dug his claws into the torn earth and blinked frantically.  
Soothingly purring Earth licked over his ears, but he hardly seemed to notice.  
Johnny looked at his weakened enemy and forbade himself any pity. Blackheart deserved all he got.  
The Doberman huffed contemptuously.  
"Pussy."  
Thistle's ears twitched. She stared at Johnny.  
"If you don't want to help, shut up!" She too purred to the tom and cleaned his fur.  
Blaze watched it for a moment, then sat down.

Blinking lazily and still breathing heavily, Blackheart endured the soothing, calming procedure.  
Then a familiar expression returned to his eyes, his fur stood on end, his tail fluffed like a bottle brush and his lips drew back in a yet silent hiss.  
"Hey, take it easy." Earth purred and ran her pink tongue between his ears. She jumped back in shock when he hit at her hissing.  
"Blackheart!" Johnny barked warningly. The tom wiggled out from under Thistle's nose and hissed at her too, before turning, falling into a somewhat awkward sprint and disappearing into the bushes.  
Johnny growled angrily.  
Thistle looked after the tomcat with her head cocked. "Whats with him?"  
"He's probably not used to embarrassing himself." Guessed Johnny. Now his bared teeth looked more like a grin. "He's sulking."  
"Embarrassing?" Earth repeated. "But wasn't his reaction to the herb understandable?"  
"Thats house cats for you." Thistle muttered. She looked worried.  
"He shouldn't just run around here like that."  
Earth's ears twitched. They trotted off, following the trail made by the herbs that had fallen off by Blackheart's escape.  
Her golden friend followed her.  
Johnny watched them go, then jumped up with a curse and hurried after them.  
"Damn it, I'll kill him!" He growled. "I'll bury him, dig him up again, clone him and then kill all of his clones !!"

Blackheart stormed through the bushes like a cannonball. The pain in his right paw only increased the level of his bad mood. The last time he'd been so frustrated had been after the San Venganza thing.  
To have lost his powers, to be trapped in the fur of an ordinary cat, to have to work with Johnny Blaze, to be beaten by cats and licked off by cats - Blackheart was fuming.  
He hardly paid any attention to where his steps led him, the pain that flared up with every step made his blue eyes sparkle.  
Behind the bushes was a wide path covered with puddles of mud.  
Apparently the landscape was now changing into the wilder areas.  
Blackheart tried to jump over one of the puddles when his legs gave way beneath him and he landed with a big splash in the middle of the mud.  
Deep down he was about to have a tantrum with many tears of anger.  
With clenched teeth he waded through the insidious hole to the edge. He lifted his paw, put it on it, shifted his weight forward- and landed headfirst in the stinking sauce again.  
Slipped.  
He pushed himself up, shook himself that the mud flew everywhere and took a deep breath.  
The birds chirped.  
"AAAAAAAAHH!!!"

Johnny, Thistle and Earth raised their heads and listened when they heard the cry of rage.  
"Faster!" Earth gasped and hurried on.  
A few meters further on, the branches suddenly parted in front of them and a brown, dripping figure pushed its way out.  
The two cats stopped dead in their tracks.  
"What's this?" Earth peeped in horror.  
The brown thing strode past them with its head and tail held high. It was a cat. A cat covered in mud from head to paw.  
Johnny raised his eyebrows. He was met with an ice-blue stare that challenged him to say something to die for.  
The Doberman had to look away to keep from laughing.  
Blackheart stalked past him -stinking, but dignified- towards the fountain where they had been sitting earlier.  
He jumped up on it, caught the edge of the pool with his front paws.  
His claws scratched the stone as he kicked out with his hind paws. Then they took hold and he pulled himself up.  
"What is he doing?!" Earth hissed at Johnny.  
"He washes the mud off with the water."  
"You mean he doesn't use his tongue to clean himself?!" Distel intervened. "That's gross!"  
Earth's fur also stood on end.  
Johnny raised his eyes to the sky in an attempt to control his urge to laugh.  
His muzzle trembled and his tail wagged violently.

Blackheart could not help but relax. The water pattered on his head and shoulders, cooling his wounded body. The wet in combination with the cold was so unlike hell, so contrary to it, that he liked it immediately. The mud colored the water brown and formed small hills of sand at the bottom of the pool.  
Finally, the tom rose from under the jets of water, climbed up the rim and jumped down onto the green, springy grass.  
His paw made him stumble briefly, then he stood upright and shook himself vigorously, which made his fur stand out in moist thorns.  
Thistle tilted her head. "You must lick yourself dry!" She insisted.  
The tom returned her gaze coolly.  
"I don't think so."  
"You know you look stupid, right?" Johnny asked with a smirk.  
Blackheart turned his head to him. "Well, I'm lucky I only look stupid now." He purred. "You've been walking around like this all your life."

Johnny's mouth opened in a surprised and amused expression.  
"Excuse me?"  
The smile on Blackheart's furry face was underhanded yet gentle.  
Like a bloody razor blade.  
His tail swung from side to side.  
At that moment, Johnny lost control.  
His legs gave way, he fell to the side- and roared with laughter.  
The smile disappeared from Blackheart's face. With his eyebrows raised, he watched the Doberman lying on his back, his paws in the air, kicking like a beetle and laughing his head off.  
The tom waited a while but when Blaze couldn't calm down, his tail began to whip and his ears flattened.  
He was just thinking about giving Johnny a good smack when Thistle moved.  
"Listen here." The golden cat meowed sternly. "If you stay like this, you'll catch your death."  
Blackheart snorted. "What do you care? We don't even know each other!"  
He rose and got so close to her that his whiskers brushed hers.  
"And if you knew me, you CERTAINLY wouldn't help me." He reassured her, growling. "So I can do without advice, and everything you use your tongue for, gold piece." His eyes were icy.  
Thistle looked at him with eyebrows raised.  
"Are you finished now, or is there anything else? ...That's right, I don't know you, but anyone can see that you can't manage out here alone. So instead of complaining all the time, you should be grateful that someone wants to help you. And now I will hear no more!"  
"If you come near me, you'll regret it." The tom stated unimpressed.  
A mocking grin crept onto Thistle's face. "Oh really?"  
Suddenly the queen jumped, threw herself on Blackheart, swept him off his paws and nailed him to the ground.  
The black one blinked perplexed. Then suddenly he smiled and licked her pink nose.  
"All right, you win. Now get off me, you're crushing me."  
"Only if you stop arguing all the time."  
Blackheart purred.  
Johnny recovered wheezily from his fit of laughter and watched them curiously.  
"Fine." Thistle took a step back and released the tomcat.

Blackheart pulled himself up. As soon as the weight of the cat disappeared from him, he fell upon her with a threatening growl and snapped at her soft ear with needle-sharp teeth.  
"THISTLE!" Earth yelled startled and took a step forward.  
Thistle reacted promptly. As soon as Blackheart's teeth caught her ear, she slapped him with her right front paw. The tom hissed angrily and pained and loosened the bite briefly, but tightened it again and tugged at her ear while he layed into her with all four paws and extended claws.  
Thistle threw herself to the side with the aim of landing on the tom, but Blackheart pushed away from her with his hind legs, landed on all fours and stumbled a bit backwards. A drop of blood fell from his snout.

The queen jumped on her paws and now also attacked. She ignored the bleeding ear completely. With paws thrown up she jumped.  
Blackheart reacted within the blink of an eye, hurtled towards at her and when she jumped, ran with his head into her stomach.  
She fell over him, clawed his back fur and scratched his chest fur with the claws of her hind paws.  
In no time a heavy brawl was on.

Johnny and Erde glanced at each other.  
Hissing and spitting the two cats rolled over the grass, which was whirled up by the sharp claws.  
Johnny lay down and with a sigh put his head on his paws.  
The whole thing would not be easy.  
With tired eyes he watched as Thistle and Blackheart fought their way across the park, a whirl of golden and black fur, teeth and claws.  
At some point, Thistle finally managed to nail Blackheart to the ground.  
"You don't fight too badly, kid!" She gasped. "But you still have a lot to learn about street life!"  
The tom tried to throw her off, but couldn't. Then he snapped at her snout, but she jerked her head up so he didn't get her.  
Hissing angrily, he fought against her with all four paws.  
Thistle raised one front paw, put it to his throat, and let the claws stick out, without injuring him yet.  
"You just don't get it, do you ?!" She hissed. "You can't survive on the street alone, it just doesn't work! So kindly pull yourself together!"  
"Why don't you just leave me alone?!" The tom yelped shrilly.  
"I don't need you! I don't need you, I don't need HIM, I don't need ANYONE in the world!!"  
Between the anger in his voice, one could hear despair and defiance.  
"I've never needed anyone! I can manage ALONE!!"

Johnny jumped up and ran over to Thistle.  
"That was once!" He snubbed Blackheart gruffly. "But you weren't a cat then! Now you are one, and as long as you are, you have no choice. So, damn it, you will behave right now, and I MEAN NOW!!"  
There was silence.

Blackheart closed his blue eyes, opened his mouth in a silent wail.  
His resistance had died.  
Small shivers ran down his fur, his breathing was choppy and irregular.  
Thistle carefully loosened her grip and the tom rolled onto his stomach, pushing his nose into the fragrant grass.  
He was defeated.  
He just lay there for a while, listening to the emotions that raged inside him.  
Somewhere in his chest he felt a piercing pain. Somewhere to the left.

"Now, that's touching." Spoke a velvety voice.  
Earth and Thistles fur stood on end, and Johnny spun around and yapped two times, loudly and warningly.  
Blackheart kept his eyes closed. He knew who had come.  
Incandescent hatred rose in him, devouring despair and heartache.  
Two ice-blue lamps in black fur lit up like suns.  
"Mephistofeles." He croaked in a voice as rough as sandpaper.  
"My son."

A growl rose in his chest. It got louder and louder until he finally opened his mouth, screaming in anger, whirled around and pounced on Mephisto.  
With his claws extended, he climbed his trouser legs, his jacket and up, nimble as a weasel.  
Before Mephisto could react, the cat reached out with flashing claws and hit his face.  
The devil let out a cry and a curse and pushed the tomcat off roughly.  
Blackheart landed on the ground, tumbling and rolling over, but jumped up again immediately.

"Blackheart!" Johnny shot forward and put a front paw on the tip of the cat's tail. The Black shot forward, was stopped by the paw on his tail, and fell back. "It `s not worth it!"  
"LET ME GO THIS INSTANT, I'LL RIP HIM TO PIECES !!"  
"You are really cute when you get angry." Mephisto smiled.  
"I'LL CARVE YOU A NEW FACE YOU DISCIPLE! JOHNNY, LET ME GO!"  
Blackheart managed to get free briefly and Blaze threw himself onto him to hold him. "Don't! We'll work together, then we'll be turned back!"  
"I DON'T WANT TO! I WILL KILL HIM, THEN IT ENDS AS WELL!"  
"YOU! ARE! A! CAT!!" Johnny yelled at him.  
That helped. But only briefly.  
**"ILLKILLHIM!!!"** Blackheart reared up and Johnny had to fight to keep him under control. The tom was surprisingly strong.

"I see you still need some time, my son." Spoke Mephisto. He ran his hand lightly over his face and when he lowered it, the scratches and blood weren't visible anymore.  
"I already thought that Johnny would submit to his fate quickly. After all, this frees him from the Ghost Rider's lust for vengeance. The Rider is now back in MY hands."  
Silence followed his words.  
Johnny slowly broke away from Blackheart, who was digging his long claws into the earth.  
"I beg your pardon?"  
Mephistofeles smiled. "I've taken his power back, Johnny. You are a free... dog."  
The gray eyes wandered over them, focused on something else.  
"Oh, and... My condolences on this matter with your son, Distel..."  
He looked at Blackheart again.  
"We're losing them all... one way or another..."

And with the next blink he was gone.

It took Johnny and Blackheart a moment to look about for Earth and Thistle.  
The two of them were cowering some distance away, pressed together beneah a bush, and watched them with wide eyes.  
When the tom and the Doberman approached them, they turned and fled through the bushes to a tree.  
"It's all right!" Johnny called. "He's gone! We- um... are "safe"!"  
Blackheart snorted but said nothing.  
The two cats exchanged a look.  
"We won't come down until you've explained this to us!" Earth then called. And Distel didn't appear as if she disagreed.  
"Fine." Blaze sighed and sat down.  
"You first, tom."  
Blackheart sank down to the floor as well, his tail neatly wrapped around him.  
"Well, it's as follows..." He began.

A few minutes later...  
Earth and Thistle stared at the other two with open mouths. Earth's ears twitched, her whiskers bristled.  
"And you now expect us to believe that ?!"  
Blackheart tilted his head.  
"I don't expect anything from you, but that's the truth."  
In a few leaps, Thistle jumped down the tree trunk and onto the grass.  
Earth followed her.  
"In spite of all this, we are a dog and a cat right now. A strange dog and a spoiled, arrogant cat, but normal animals nonetheless." Johnny finished.  
He bent back and scratched his ear with his hind paw.  
Blackheart looked at Thistle.  
Distel blinked a little confused at his haunted, thoughtful look.  
"Where IS your son?" He asked. The golden cat's eyes filled with pain. She turned and slipped away without saying a word.  
It took Blackheart a moment to realize that he had obviously said something wrong.  
Earth sighed sadly. "Her son was kidnapped... and her mate killed. Canine tore her family apart."  
Her green eyes dark with grief, she hurried after her friend.  
Blackheart's whiskers twitched.  
Johnny growled. "Insensitive, arrogant, smug, snooty, callous, dumb, stubborn-"  
"HEY!"  
Blaze paused. "- headstrong, spoiled, demonic bastard!" He then completed.  
"Pleased, Blackheart!"

The two stared at each other angrily. Memories were reflecting in their animal eyes.  
Memories of fire, air, earth and water, a roaring engine and blue, shriveled corpses, of a grinning skull, wrapped in flames, the glowing eye sockets like magnets, of the burning of a thousand bloody souls, of a black and a white heart, an old village, a cowboy, a beautiful young woman and an old man with a walking stick.

"I didn't mean- Uh... Well, you know." Blaze growled.  
Blackheart made no reply. He looked in the direction in which the two queens had disappeared.  
"How is she, what do you think?" He muttered thoughtfully.  
"Hey, since when do you care?"  
The cat spun around, his eyes sparkling.  
His gaze was so angry that Johnny flattened his ears against his head.  
"You don't know me at all." Blackheart hissed in an ice cold voice. He turned, ran towards a tree, shimmied up the bark per his claws and disappeared behind a wall of leaves.  
Suddenly Johnny was completely alone. He shook his head.  
"What **is** going **on** here?!"  
Only the chirping of birds and the hum of bees answered him.  
He trotted to the tree, lay down under it with a sigh, and closed his eyes, ears alert.  
Soon afterwards he heard Thistle and Earth coming back. His eyes opened and he spotted the two cats. He raised his head.  
Thistle looked composed, Earth determined.  
"Let's go and look for something to eat." The striped one said.  
The Doberman stood up.  
"Black! If you're hungry, come down!"

It took a while, then the black tom came climbing down the trunk backside first.  
"Where do we go?" He wanted to know.  
Distel grinned crookedly. "Ever caught a bird?"  
Blackheart tilted his head. "So far I haven't seen the appeal."  
Earth smiled slyly. "Watch, this is how it works!"  
She looked around until she spotted a blackbird eagerly searching for bugs and worms. The striped cat pressed herself flat onto the grass and carefully pushed herself towards the feathered animal.  
Blackheart watched her carefully, unconsciously holding his breath.  
The bird jerked its head and looked in Earth's direction. She froze. The tom's whiskers trembled.  
The blackbird looked away again and Earth crept on. Now she was very close.  
Johnny glanced at Blackheart.  
He was crouched on the floor ready to pounce, his eyes fixed on Earth and the blackbird, his tail whipping excitedly, his whiskers vibrating. A wild fire glowed in his ice-blue eyes.  
Blaze almost smiled.  
And Earth jumped!  
The bird screamed and fluttered, but she had it and quickly bit through its neck.  
The feathery body went limp.

"Good catch!" Thistle praised. "But the alarm call must have scared away the rest of the prey, let's try somewhere else."  
Earth put the bird down and began to pluck it. "We could try the garbage cans, at the the two-legs puppies' place. There are always delicious things, but it's so difficult to get a hold of them!"  
She spat out a mouthful of feathers, plucked off the last of the fluff, and sank her teeth into the tender flesh.  
"Mmmh ..." She went. "Theesh crittersh are sho delishioush!"  
Johnny and Blackheart exchanged a look and, for once, were in complete agreement.  
The tom jumped when his stomach growled loudly.  
Earth picked up the bird and carried it to him. "Try it!" She ordered.  
Blackheart hesitated for a moment, then leaned over and sniffed the prey.  
The blackbird smelled spicy and of blood and... definitely delicious.  
The tom stuck out his tongue carefully and touched the blackbird with it. The taste made fireworks explode in his mouth.  
He took a small bite.  
"Wow..." He groaned, overwhelmed. "It's good!"  
Earth laughed. "The Devil's Son is eating a blackbird."  
Johnny shook himself.  
"Woah, that's disgusting."  
Thistle narrowed her eyes to narrow slits.  
"Eat or die, dog." She merely replied. "And it doesn't taste that bad."  
Blackheart raised his head and licked his nose.  
"She is right." He meowed.  
Earth took the blackbird away from him.  
"The rest is mine." She stated.  
And just seconds later, said rest was polished off.  
The cat rose and carried the bird's skeleton to a flower bed. Then she gathered up the feathers and carried them over too, where she carefully buried everything.  
"You bury it?" Johnny asked in surprise.  
"Yes, we do. It is imperative to avoid any provocation of the BlackwayClan." Earth lectured and grinned, which looked more like a grimace. "If they saw the feathers, all hell would break loose here."  
Now she had to laugh and looked at Blackheart.  
"Sorry!"  
The tomcat growled lacksadaisically. "It's okay. What do we do now?"  
Before anyone could answer him, a rust-red peacock butterfly sat on his nose and gently opened its wings.  
He glanced down at the butterfly and snapped at it, but the animal held on.  
Johnny started laughing.  
"A sight for the gods! Stay like this!"  
Irritated, the tomcat swiped at the annoying insect, which took flight and then sat on his ear.  
The black shook his head wildly. "Get off me!"  
Everyone was laughing now.  
A colorful shimmer filled the air and only moments later there were about thirty butterflies on the tomcat's fur.  
There was a brief, surprised silence.  
Then Johnny began roaring again and the cats laughed tears as well.  
"Get lost!" Blackheart shrieked, shaking like a wet dog. "Off I say! Beat it!"  
A red cloud enveloped him, then the animals settled on him again. And again a butterfly sat on his nose.  
When he saw Earth shake with laughter, his fractiousness disappeared.  
A black cat besieged by butterflies.  
This picture in front of his mind's eye was so amusing that he had to laugh himself, which probably surprised him the most.  
Eventually they all lay on the ground and surrendered to the laughing fit without restraint.  
Whenever they had calmed down halfway, someone started to giggle again and the whole thing started all over again.  
In the end, however, they gradually calmed down.  
"That feels good ..." Earth groaned and rolled onto her stomach. "We don't have much to laugh about these days."  
Blackheart was aware that he was grinning, but he couldn't help it, and a loud purr made his throat vibrate.  
He had never had that much fun.

Nevertheless, it occurred to him that if the circumstanced had been different, he would have murdered both Johnny and Thistle and Earth cruelly and with pleasure.  
But he still needed them. And besides that, he was a cat.  
"Thanks father." He thought sarcastically.  
Then he felt the laughter tingle inside him again and grinned keyed up.  
It was funny.

STILL HAVE TO PROOF READ FROM HERE ON

It wasn't long before they reached town.  
It took longer until they reached the garbage cans.  
Thistle and Earth led them through some side streets and even through the subway tunnels until they finally came to a large, tall building. They huddled in the shade until Thistle was sure there were no enemy cats around. Then they scurried to the garbage cans that were under a separate roof at the house.  
"If I may ask ..." Earth said to Johnny and made a funny little bow. "Knock them over."  
The Doberman hesitated for a moment, then rose to his hind legs and put his front paws on the lid of the garbage can. He pulled and the thing toppled and crashed to the floor.  
A couple of bulging garbage bags tumbled out.  
"We'll all take one!" Commanded Earth and dug her teeth into the knot holding together the bag that was closest to her. Johnny and Distel picked one up as well.  
Blackheart hesitated.  
"Gag uh oove ungh!" Earth hissed past the knot. "-eh guh-uh fh-crang!"  
"I beg your pardon?"  
Earth set the bag down. "I said: Get a move on, we gotta scram!"  
Blackheart picked up one of the sacks, wrinkling his nose in disgust. The soft, elastic material felt strange. "If Erato could see me like that." He suddenly thought. "What would she say?"  
A gust of wind ruffled his fur and brought the answer with it.  
"I would say it's good for you to have to work for yourself for once..." Whispered his mother's voice, giggling.  
Blackheart growled.  
That wasn't exactly the response he'd been hoping for.  
Dragging the heavy sack behind him, he fought his way over to the others. Earth eyed him disapprovingly. He spat the knot out.  
"Why are you looking at me like that ?!" He hissed. The tip of the cat's tail twitched briefly.  
"If you pull the sack across the floor, it will soon tear open and our food will fall out. You have to carry it." "Can you tell me how I am supposed to do that, too?" The tomcat hissed.  
"Like so." Came Thistle's voice.  
Earth laid on her stomach and her friend pulled the bag onto her back. When the cat rose, the contents slid to her sides as if she were carrying saddlebags. "Tadaa!" She grinned.  
The tomcat snorted softly, but refrained from responding.  
Earth dragged the second sack onto Thistle's back, then came to Blackheart.  
"Shall I help you?" She asked kindly. The black nodded ungraciously and laid down.  
When he got up, he even forced a "Thank you", which seemed to please Earth. She purred briefly and trotted back to Thistle. The two were like Siamese twins. You hardly ever saw one without the other.  
Why did this display of friendship and loving loyalty make him so uncomfortable ?!  
Downright give him a stomach ache?!  
...He was probably just hungry. He shook his head briefly and joined the others.  
"We should hurry up." Thistle meowed and checked the air.  
How was she able to smell anything with that stench?!  
"As long as we can get away from that smell, I'd love to."  
"House cats." Earth grumbled and started walking. Thistle flicked an ear in amusement, following suit.  
"Let the ground open up and devour this cat!" Blackheart thought, irritated and annoyed.  
Earth confused him in a way that was completely new to him. And it made him furious that he could not clear up this confusion or remove its source. 

They crept again through dark backyards and narrow alleys. Earth and Thistle formed the vanguard, Blackheart ran in the middle and Johnny brought up the rear.  
After a while the Doberman noticed movement in the shadows above them. He raised his head, seeing cats looking down at the group from the rooftops. He quickly caught up with Blackheart and moved so that the bag that was hanging from his mouth nudged the tomcat as he ran.  
"Hey!" Blackheart hissed in a low voice.  
Annoyed, Johnny repeated the deed.  
"What IS it ?!" The tomcat hissed.  
"Woof." Blaze made with the knot in his mouth. Blackheart turned his head and gave him an unfriendly look. The Doberman nodded upwards, the tomcat looked and saw the cats.  
"Great." He growled and hurried to Thistle, who was closest to him.  
"We have a problem." He announced in a low voice. "Look up."  
Thistle raised her head. She did not express any alarm, instead she just shouted one word:  
"Flight!"  
"Flight?" Blackheart repeated in a lowered voice. "What flight?"  
Before Thistle could answer, a tall, skinny tomcat jumped out onto the street in front of them. His fur shimmered like fire in the semi-darkness. As he stepped closer, Blackheart noticed his mustache. He had unusually long whiskers that curved down in the second third, giving them the appearance of the wings of a flying bird.  
"Flight!" Earth meowed as well, shook off the trash bag, ran to the tomcat and rolled over on her back in front of his paws, purring like a kitten. When he lowered his head to her, she licked his nose, beard and one ear hard. The cat grumbled at her affectionately and nudged her with his paw before turning his gaze to Thistle, who he was looking at no less affectionately. But when he spoke, his voice was calm and authoritarian.  
"You haven't been seen for a long time. What lead you here?"  
Earth still lay on the asphalt at his paws and purred. What an undignified behavior!  
"Get up!" Blackheart wanted to call out to her. But his mouth was dry as desert sand.  
Why did she act like that? Was the flame-colored one her companion ?! She acted like she was totally beholden to him!  
And why, WHY did he even care?!  
She was a cat, she didn`t matter to him!  
Angry and confused by his own senseless feelings, he scratched the asphalt with his claws.  
"Homesickness." Answered Thistle. Her eyes shimmered strangely sad. The stranger tomcat left Earth behind, brushing her with his tail. He stopped in front of Thistle and looked at her warmly. The cat met his gaze, then took a step back until she was standing next to Blackheart.  
"And we brought guests with us." The green gaze of the fire-colored tomcat turned to the black.  
Johnny moved forward until he was on Blackheart's other side.  
A jerk went through the body of the tomcat as the red one turned his gaze on him. His claws scraped the asphalt, his tail twitched and his ears were flat.  
By the flickering in the blue eyes Johnny recognized that the blacks heart had to be racing.  
Flight did not move, he seemed frozen.  
Blackheart returned the fixed look. He looked like he would blow a fuse at the slightest stimulus.  
The rooftop cats slowly gathered behind Flight and, as their hearing told them, behind them as well.  
A trap.  
Or was it?  
"Welcome." Flight said calmly. Blackheart flinched again as if the red had hit him, but then relaxed a little.  
"The friends of my daughters shall also be my guests."  
"Thank you." Johnny replied in his deep voice.  
"That's kind of you."  
"Daughters." Blackheart thought. Every hair on his body stood on end. Flight was the father of Thistle ... and also of Earth ... Was he like his own father? A sneaky, heartless, selfish bastard, serving his own benefit and always looking for more power, that would walk over dead bodies for it? He didn't know what other fathers were like. He only knew Mephistopheles.  
"That's Johnny and Blackheart." Explained Thistle.  
"Hmm ..." Flight gave the tomcat that intense look again. "... black ... Heart?"  
The black cat thrust out his chin and put his ears back. His eyes flashed defiantly.  
"That's what they call me." He answered in a low but firm voice.  
Fligh smiled. "Good. Come on then."  
He turned and ran back into the crowd of cats, which gave way to him almost reverential.  
Blackheart put his ears back up in confusion.  
He didn't quite know how to act. As a cat he saw everything from a completely different point of view and he felt how it changed him. And he wasn't sure if he liked it.  
Johnny nudged him as he passed him by.  
"Come on, puss." He growled. "I'm hungry."  
The Doberman picked up his trash bag and followed Flight and half of the pack of cats.  
Thistle helped Earth to maneuver the garbage bag back onto her back, and then they followed her father as well.  
Blackheart jumped when someone nudged him from behind. The other half of the pack stood behind him, filling the alley from wall to wall.  
"Do you want to take root here?" A tiger cat with blue eyes growled at him. "Move!"  
Walking backwards, Blackheart retreated a little, turned and hopped off briskly.

Flight and his pack led the small group to a junkyard on the outskirts.  
Through a car that was parked in front of a hole in a brick wall, they got to the area where the rubbish was piled up.  
And more cats were waiting on the pile.  
Red and brown, cream, black, gold, white, tri-colored, tabby, striped, spotted- cats.  
Fifty, roughly estimated. Maybe a little less.  
There were many. A great many.  
They sat on rotten sofas, on cardboard boxes and washing machines, on stoves and tables, on chairs and armchairs, a piano, a cupboard, and, and, and ...  
Suddenly Earth was next to Blackheart and she grinned.  
"This is where the cats that are not part of Chatanas' clan meet. My father is their leader."  
"Chatanas?" The cat asked nervously, "Who is that?"  
The grin disappeared.  
"Chatanas is ... She is the enemy. Evil. The name is a play on words. Chat the cat and Satanas for devil. A devil cat, so to speak."  
She gave him a quick look. "Just like you."  
Blackheart turned his head to her.  
His eyes were narrowed to slits and he gave her a smile.  
"Just like me." He emphasized smugly.  
Earth shuddered and quickened her pace until she walked next to Thistle again.  
She didn't look back at him.  
Blackheart eyed her from behind. Suddenly he wished with alarming vehemence that he had answered otherwise.

Flight stopped up ahead and turned.  
"My daughters have come to visit." He announced. "And they brought guests with them. Let us greet them appropriately!"  
There was an enthusiastic yowl all around.  
"A celebration, a celebration!" A couple of kittens meowed.  
Groups gathered, moving in different directions.  
Blackheart disliked the whole situation violently.  
He couldn't leave because otherwise he wouldnt be able to relocate the others, but he didn't want to stay either.  
There was no one with whom he could talk without feeling dull or having to fear that he would get his fur pounded off his body and not being able to defend himself.  
Restless, nervous and angry, he worked the dirty floor with all four paws, padded forwards and backwards and got more and more twitchy.  
When Johnny came to him and pulled the garbage bag from his back, he leaped into the air hissing.  
"Hey, take it easy." The Doberman growled. "What are you so aflutter for?"  
"Oh, you wouldn`t understand!" The black tomcat hissed at him and extended his claws.  
"You are right." Johnny growled unimpressed.  
"Then leave me alone!"  
Johnny bared his teeth briefly.  
"Believe me, your satanic princeliness, there`s nothing I´d rather do!"  
Then he grabbed the trash bag and carried it away.  
"Where are you going with that?" Blackheart yelped.  
Blaze put the bag back down.  
"The best of it is for Flight, says Thistle." He explained. "As a hostess gift."  
And with that he took the bag and disappeared.  
The tomcat's claws made furrows in the ground. His tail flapped back and forth.  
Anger simmered inside of him.  
He knew without his powers and as a fluffy, fucking little cat, he couldn't even hold his own in a fit of anger, because if he went berserk in this state, he would make a fool of himself.  
But he would have loved most of all to turn on his own axis, spitting and hissing, trusting that his anger would cause the bystanders terrible agony.  
Seething, he padded over to an empty sofa and threw himself on it.  
The worn springs creaked and groaned.  
He rolled on his side and took out his anger on the material, slashing it open with his claws.

"Hey hey, there's enough broken junk here already. Don't wreck the rest of it too."  
With his teeth bared, Blackheart tore another piece out of the fabric cover and shredded it into tiny pieces. Then he turned to the owner of the voice.  
It was Thistle.  
"What do you want?!" He hissed unfriendly.  
"Come eat." The golden one merely meowed and walked away silently.  
Growling grimly, the tomcat laid his ears back and jumped off the sofa.  
He followed Thistle to a free space among the piles of rubbish, where cats lay or sat everywhere and licked each other's fur.  
Flight sat in the middle of the square. There were four garbage bags in front of him and some cats were picking out the best pieces. To avoid the food getting full of sand and dust, they placed it on a clean rectangular piece of metal.  
When they were done, they pushed the bags together and withdrew.  
Flight turned to Earth, Thistle, and Johnny, who were waiting on the edge of the site.  
"Come, you must be hungry." He meowed.  
Earth and Thistle accepted his invitation without hesitation, but Flight's gaze wandered from Johnny to Blackheart.  
"You too are welcome. There is enough."

"He's lying." Thistle muttered as Blackheart caught up with her.  
"There is never enough for everyone. Not anymore."  
The tomcat craned his neck to peer into one of the bags.  
Cucumber peels, coffee filters, tea bags, tomato stems and egg shells shone at him.  
"Bah." He made lowly and shuddered.  
Suddenly it was deathly quiet.  
The assembled cat community, including Johnny, stared at him in horror.  
He clearly had said something wrong.  
Johnny's gray-blue eyes bored into his. "Idiot." The Doberman formed silently with his lips.  
Thistle seemed like she wanted to stare Blackheart into the ground. Her tail lashed angrily.  
"Thistle, moderate yourself." Flight growled, but his eyes suddenly were a little colder.  
Earth stepped up to the black tomcat, her fur puffed up, making her look almost twice as big.  
But when she spoke, her voice was calm.  
"You may be used to eating from a golden plate, but we're not so lucky here. Thanks to Chatanas we barely have enough to eat. Therefore we are grateful for everything. Please respect that. "  
The black one straightened up.  
"I respect it. Enjoy your meal." He turned away.  
"What do you mean by that?!  
"By that I mean, I'd rather fast than eat garbage."  
"Are you sure?" Johnny wanted to know. Blackheart turned back to him.  
"As sure as the Amen in church." Biting sarcasm burned in this simple sentence.  
"At least I won't eat up your precious food away. Valete."  
And with that the four-legged demon left.  
Johnny growled. "That damn pride is going to break his neck one day."  
"Or he'll starve to death first." Earth replied offish.  
Thistle was silent, but looked angry still.  
Suddenly there was an ear-piercing yowl that set Johnnys teeth on edge.  
The excited murmur that Blackheart had caused, stopped.  
All eyes were on the five cats stumbling into the center of the square.

The demon felt as if he was being immersed in ice water. His fur stood on end.  
A piebald cat hobbled on three legs, the fourth was covered in blood and pressed close to her body. One tomcat had a torn ear and deep welts on the flanks, another one was missing half of her tail and she left a trail of blood behind her. A very young cat hopped forward on three legs, then collapsed. Where her right eye should have been there was only blood.

The leader, a gray, hackly tomcat, staggered towards Flight.  
"Canine." He merely whispered.  
All of a sudden, Blackheart realized how lucky he had been.  
"Where is Stone?" Flight asked flatly.  
The gray just shook his head with cloudy eyes.  
A terrible scream tore the silence.  
As Blackheart looked around, a spotted cat running away, still screaming heartbreakingly.  
Flight shot Thistle a pleading look before turning and hurrying after the spotted one.  
Thistle sighed heavily. Then she turned her sky blue gaze on the five injured.  
"Let yourself be taken care of." She meowed in a hollow voice.  
The gray tomcat nodded and led his troop away limping, his face contorted with pain.  
Slowly, almost against his will, Blackheart turned to find Johnny's gaze.  
There was surprise in his eyes, a silent question, like he was seeing Blaze for the first time and, barely noticeable, gratitude.  
The Doberman turned away. His eyes were as cold as a blizzard.  
The tomcat gasped for air. His chest became tight. He gasped again and shook himself vigorously until the strange hollow feeling disappeared.  
What was the matter with him ?! Since when did he care if someone liked him ?!  
SINCE WHEN DID HE CARE IF JOHNNY LIKED HIM ?!  
He shook himself again.  
This whole cat thing made him completely mad.  
He turned around and ran back along the free path between the garbage hills until he discovered a broken clothes dryer, a little further away from the other cats, the door of which was invitingly open.  
He stepped closer and examined the little cave inside.  
There was no sign of anyone living here, neither cat hair nor smell, so Blackheart climbed in and laid down.  
Finally alone.

As soon as he was no longer bombarded with expectant looks from all sides, his emotions came up again.  
Johnny. Earth. Thistle. Rubbish. Flight. Canine. Injured cats. Cheeky cats. Holier-than-thou Johnny Blaze. Mephistofeles. He himself a cat. A cat. Without powers. Impotent. Helpless. Helpless. Helpless.  
Like an endless loop, the one word kept repeating itself in his head.  
Helpless.  
Blackheart pushed his four paws against the inside walls of the dryer drum with all his might and screamed his fury out at the top of his lungs.  
Laughter echoed between his ears.  
The tomcat paused for a moment, listening to the merciless, dark laugh.  
Then he clawed his talons into the ventilation holes in the drum, tilted his head back and screamed it back.  
Like that, Earth found him.

All heads went up again as the striped cat dragged the tomcat across the square by the neck, while he screeched as if his fur was being flayed off. Earth dragged the black over to the healers' dwellings, who were still busy looking after the hunting party, and tried to close his muzzle shut there.  
“What's going on?” Asked one of the healers. "I dont know!" Earth explaimed. "He doesn't seem to be hurt, maybe some kind of fit!" "Hold him tight." The other asked and hurried away.  
Immediately afterwards she came back with a poppy seed capsule in her mouth. Earth hung off the tomcat with all her weight and the healer shook a few seeds into Blackheart's open mouth. He immediately choked them down in shock and began to gasp like a fish out of water.  
"Take it easy." Earth meowed reassuringly. "Easy. All is fine."  
"Get off ... of me!" Blackheart gasped and kicked the striped one with all fours. "Off I say!"  
Looking hurt, Earth let go of him. "I just wanted to help!" The black got to his feet and shook his head vigorously to get rid of the dizziness that set in.  
"What did you give me there?" He growled. "Poppy seeds." Replied the healer cat. "For calming."  
"I AM calm!!" The tomcat roared at her. His voice cracked slightly.  
"...Let`s hope this stuff will work soon." Earth grumbled.  
By now it sounded as if Mephistofeles was crying with laughter.  
"What's going on now?" Thistle came trotting in with Johnny in tow. Both of them dropped a bundle of herbs, which two healer cats immediately pitched into. The golden one looked around.  
"We heard a scream." She meowed and faced Blackheart. "Are you all right?"  
For a moment it looked like Blackheart was trying to not say anything at all. Then it blurted out of him. "What do you think?!" He hissed at the golden. "What do you think, do I look like all right?! I was self-sufficient! I never needed anyone! Never! One glance from me and people dropped like flies! My presence made the air freeze! I was independent!" I was mighty! I was FEARED! And now I'm stuck here with my drooling, panting enemy, am a weak, powerless creature, can barely defend myself and waste my time with mangy, ridiculous cats who like to eat trash from garbage cans!!"  
During the tirade it once again had grown completely quiet. Only the injured cats groaned softly.  
Thistle stared at Blackheart with wide eyes.  
"So. Thistle. Do you think I'm all right?" Asked the tomcat in a honey-sweet voice. Before she could answer, he turned and stalked off with his tail held high. He did not get far however.  
With a single leap, Johnny landed in front of him and drew himself up to full height in front of the black. With bared teeth, the Doberman growled at him: "Now listen here, you arrogant barfball-"  
"Johnny, wait." Distel stepped up to them quickly and looked at him silently for a moment.  
Finally she turned to face Blackheart with a deep sigh. He did not expect what came next.  
"I get it." The golden meowed softly. "But you will not improve your situation by going crazy. We offer you to fit in with our community while you are here. Whether you accept the offer is up to you."  
Silence followed her words.  
The world itself seemed to be holding its breath.  
Blackheart stood frozen. He stared at Distel, no, stared through her eyes into another reality.  
His ears twitched as if he was listening to something, but nothing indicated whether he had even heard Thistle.  
"What's the matter with him now?" Johnny grumbled at Earth, who was sitting next to him.  
"Shh." The striped hissed. "He listens to the voice of his heart."  
"He's doing WHAT?!"  
"Shhht."  
The Doberman fell silent.  
Blinking slowly, the blue eyes glided over Thistle's face, the fur on her chest, down to the floor to her paws. The icy mirrors still saw nothing earthly. Then something returned to them, a cold sharpness like the blade of a weapon. These cut diamonds met the deep, troubled lakes in Thistle's face.  
For only a few seconds the demon let his feelings become visible.  
There was loneliness. Bitterness. And, very briefly, a vague yearning. Then the curtain fell and the emotions were locked down again. What remained was cold anger.  
"I can`t." Blackheart replied.  
Johnny snorted derogatory. Thistle's eyes were still full of understanding.  
"You can." She said confidently. "But you're not ready to let it happen yet."  
It was like Johnny was looking into the past. The expression Blackheart bestowed the golden with was so arrogant that he felt transported back to San Venganza  
“A really delightful view of things,” Concluded the tomcat. "What makes you think that I would even want that?"  
Earth took a step forward. "You want to stay like this all the time? So-" Her voice died away.  
"So snooty, so arrogant, so obnoxious, so presumptious, so evil, so cold-hearted, so smug etcetera etcetera." Johnny listed. Earth blinked.  
"You could learn." She continued carefully. "Couldn`t you?  
Blackheart stared her down. "It's not about being able to, cat." He spat in her face. "It's about wanting to. I liked my life the way it was!"  
"That's why you needed the contract, right?" Johnny interjected. "Because your life was so great."  
The tomcat bristled until he seemed twice as big as before.  
"Don't start again, Blaze!" He hissed, his pointed teeth bared. "I'm warning you, leave me the hell alone with San Venganza!!"  
"Why? Maybe because I'm right?!"  
The cat's angry flashing eyes veiled.  
"It's nice to be there for each other." Earth said quickly before he could explode. "Why do you allow your origins to stand in your way?"  
The tomcat blinked. Suddenly he looked very exhausted.  
"It's not in my way." He disagreed and sat down. "It is my future."  
"Our future and who we are is hidden within ourselves." Thistle spoke up.  
She blinked as if she needed a moment to understand for herself what she had just said.  
Blackheart yawned. "What's that supposed to mean now" He meowed indifferently and winked with both eyes, holding them open with difficulty.  
"That means it doesn't matter where we come from or who our parents are." Earth said. "If we listen to our hearts, we can do anything we want."  
The black yawned again. "Then I want to kill my father and take his place."  
Johnny growled in annoyance. "Wouldn`t have thought of it ourselves." Blackheart was yawning yet again.  
"Go to sleep." Earth commanded gruffly. "There's a sofa over there."  
The demon wanted to object, shook his head- and yawned.  
"Move it."  
Already half asleep Blackheart staggered toward the sofa. It took two attempts for him get up. No sooner did his ear touch the cushion than he fell into a near comatose sleep.  
"Finally." Johnny grunted and scratched behind his ear with his hind paw with relish.  
Thistle sighed. She suddenly seemed tired and older than she was.  
Johnny noticed a red figure emerging from the shadows between the piles of rubbish and approaching the wire netting that enclosed the junkyard.  
Flight paused for a moment and glanced at Thistle over his shoulder.  
His green eyes were gentle but decisive.  
"Come." He ordered. "There are things that we need to talk about."  
Thistle bowed her head and trotted silently after her father, who disappeared through a hole in the fence.  
Johnny eyed her with his head cocked. He waited a moment. Eyed the motionless form of Blackheart. Looked at the fence again. Then he trotted over to the hole, lay on his stomach, and squeezed through. When he got up, the structure rattled loudly and he quickly pressed himself against it to muffle the sound. Cursing silently, nose on the ground, he followed the scent trail of Thistle and Flight until he could hear their voices.  
Silently he moved closer.

"The attacks are getting worse andn worse." Flight meowed in that moment. "I don't want to lie to you, Thistle. We lost six cats and two litters of pups in the last moon."  
The golden was silent for a moment. "You wanted me to come. Why?"  
"We have to stick together in these difficult times." The tomcat said firmly. He hesitated and it was a while before he spoke again. "I'm starting to wonder if it wouldn't be easier to get out of town."  
For a moment there was an abysmal silence.  
"I'm not going without Finn." Thistle then said in a hard voice.  
Flight sighed tiredly. "I know. But we have to figure out how to go about it all."  
"What are you doing here?" Asked a voice close to Johnny.  
The Doberman jumped and turned his head.  
Earth sat like Queen Cleopatra with her tail around her paws and glared at him reproachfully.  
Before Johnny could think of anything to say, Flight appeared in front of him.  
"What are you two doing here ?!" The tomcat asked in a mighty voice.  
"I just asked Johnny that as well." Earth replied pointedly. "I was following HIM."  
The Doberman hesitated.  
"So ... That doesn't mean I eavesdropped... but who is Finn?" He then asked carefully.  
Thistle who stood right behind Flight looked agitated. Johnny almost thought she hadn't heard him.  
When she looked at him, however, her eyes were dark with grief and a consuming fire blazed in them.  
"My son." She merely meowed, then turned away and slipped back into the bushes.  
Earth bowed her head. She spared Johnny another glance, then turned and walked back.  
The Doberman was left alone with Flight. There was an oppressive silence.  
"It ... is very kind of you, to let us stay here for a while ..." Johnny finally said.  
Flight seemed to penetrate him with his green eyes.  
"For your information, dog." He said. "It is only thanks to my daughters that you are allowed to stay."  
He paused and his gaze fixed on a point in the distance.  
"This city is no longer like it used to be. But I'll do everything I can to change that."  
It took Johnny a moment before he realized that Flight had not adressed that to him.

Warm darkness embraced him, a soft, familiar scent caressed his nose.  
He felt weightless in this quiet peace.  
A peace that only waited in the arms of a loving mother.  
Suddenly - a glistening light that penetrated his closed eyelids.  
Then darkness again.  
And a whisper, voices that hissed together.  
He opened his eyes.  
A glowing figure was floating in front of him, a woman clad in flowing white cloths that moved as if under water.  
Lilith.  
"Mother?"  
The whispers grew louder. More haunting.  
Then suddenly, a blackness, darker than the blackest night, so deep that the eye could not find a hold in it.  
It enveloped him and the shining woman on all sides and the light became weaker.  
It grew cold. The peace was gone as if it had never existed.  
"Mother!"  
The light became glaring once more and devoured the contours of the woman.  
In the midst of the bright glow, a white cat materialized.  
The whispering finally became clear, he could understand the words.  
"I'm not your mother. I'm good. You are bad. And that's why I can't exist here."  
The cat shone like a star.  
"Demon!" The hissing voices condemned him mercilessly. The word cut through his heart like a guillotine, filling it with ice.  
The black engulfed the light and he fell into swirling darkness.  
"Mother! MOTHERRR!!"

Two blue eyes flew open.  
Blackheart blinked. His heart pounded.  
His mouth was dry.  
The tomcat gasped for breath and stared into the comforting sunlight that fell on his face until his eyes bled crystal clear tears.  
Something stirred next to the sofa.  
Johnny raised his head and looked at the black. Blackheart didn't move. Just blinked away the tears.  
Before Johnny could say anything, Earth suddenly jumped on the sofa and sniffed Blackheart. The tomcat blinked in bewilderment.  
"...What are you doing?" He muttered.  
"You had a nightmare." Earth Meowed and began to lick him between the ears.  
With a deep, soothed sigh, Blackheart closed his eyes and rested his head on his front paws.  
The even stroking made pleasant shivers trickle through his body, gradually driving away the horror of the dream.  
Johnny blinked in surprise. The sight of the demon in cat's fur, who evidently enjoyed the petting, who for the first time allowed someone else's care without objection, was extremely unusual.  
Then- he couldn't believe his ears, Blackheart began to purr.  
The Doberman had to suppress amused laughter.  
Earth slowly worked her way down, cleaning the tomcat's neck and back before starting over.

Sunlight danced over the leaves of the large trees spreading their wide branches protectively over the cemetery. But under the treetops it was cool twilight.  
Between the tombstones, in an open space, four cats sat around a tomcat with white and gray stripes. Both of the poor animal's front legs had been broken, and they were sticking out at an extremely unusual angle.  
A large tabby paced up and down in front of the cats. Her tail swung from side to side.  
A tense, deadly silence hovered over the square.  
Finally Canine stopped in front of the striped one and sat down, tucking her tail neatly around her front paws.  
"This game is getting boring, Stone." She mewed quietly. "So ... I'll ask you for the last time now."  
Canine put one front paw on Stone's leg and shifted her weight forward. Stone cried out in pain and writhed beneath her.  
_"Where are Flight and the rest hiding?!" _  
"Fox Dung !" The tomcat groaned hoarsely. He was trembling with agony. "...Aah... I'll never- ah! **Never** tell you!" He screamed again.  
_"WHERE ?!"_ The tiger cat hissed, teeth bared. Stone threw his head back and screamed at the top of his lungs.  
Canine let go of him.  
Slowly she turned around.  
Stone groaned in pain and doubled over, trembling and twitching.  
At a wag of her tail, a few cats stepped out of the shadows towards Canine.  
Between them they led a white-and-orange-striped tomcat whose whiskers trembled nervously.  
Canine purred as if someone were rubbing her stomach.  
"Ah. Grass. We were already expecting you."  
The group stopped a short distance away.  
"... Grass ... Grass ..." Canine meowed musingly. "You have proven lately that you are more of a burden than a valuable fighter..."  
"I already told you!!" Grass gasped trembling. "You AND Chatanas! It wasn't my fault!"  
"Yes, only... Chatanas relies more on my judgment." Canine replied gently.  
"And I don't believe you ..."  
The orange and white tomcat twitched at irregular intervals in panic. His eyes flickered.  
"Canine ... please ..." He stammered.  
The tiger cat flattened her ears back.  
"Kill him." She ordered shortly.  
The bystanders threw themselves on Grass and he gave a shrill scream. Then the screams turned agonized before they finally fell silent. All that was left of Grass was a tattered, bleeding pile of fur.  
In spite of his own pain, the sight of a murder so coldly ordered had made Stone stiffen with nameless horror. Canine turned back to him.  
"Since the life of one of our own cats means little to me, how valuable do you think yours is?" The tiger cat meowed. "...And do you know what else I like to do?" She purred, savoring the moment.  
"I collect tails."  
She got so close to Stone that their noses touched.  
What usually served as a greeting was a threatening gesture here.  
"So. _You will now tell me where your damn rebel camp is, or your tail is next in my collection!"_  
Stone took a deep, trembling breath. He looked right into Canine's eyes.  
"Go to hell, you stinking rat hide!" He hissed.  
Three cats held him down while a fourth tore his tail off his body with its teeth.  
Anyone who heard the screams of the gray and white tomcat got an idea of what a poor soul in purgatory might sound like.__

__Not far away, two cats sat on a tombstone, under the protectively spread wings of a marble angel.  
A snow-white cat with honey-colored eyes and a dark brown tomcat with gray eyes. Around the white's neck was a man-made collar, with grass wrapped around it, and adorned with dog teeth.  
"She uses very effective methods ..." Purred the tomcat in a hoarse voice. "I am impressed."  
The cat bowed her head in agreement.  
It was a pretty animal.  
"You're right." She meowed. "At the latest when she blinds him, his resistance will break. The darkness and the pain. These two are the ultimate remedy, Mistofelees."  
Mephistofeles also inclined his head briefly.  
The cat name was just one of many that belonged to him.  
"Chatanas." He said slowly. "You make me proud."_ _

__

__When Blackheart smelled a strangely familiar smell, he was astonished to recognize Thistle. At the same moment, Earth stopped what she was doing and lifted her head. Blackheart opened his eyes.  
There she stood, fiery golden as always and apparently she was almost bursting with zest for action.  
"Enough cuddling!" She meowed full of energy. "We're going hunting! It's time you learned, Blackheart!"  
She fixed her blue eyes on Johnny. "And I want you to come with us."  
The tomcat and the Doberman exchanged an wry look.  
"Hunting?" Blackheart repeated.  
Johnny cocked his head. "What do you want me there for?" He wanted to know. "I'm even clumsier and awkward at hunting, than Blackie!"  
"Ey!" Blackheart hissed. "I'm not clumsy! And woe betide you, if you call me "Blackie" again!"  
"Enough!" Distel cut in sternly.  
"I don't want you to hunt with us, Johnny. We just hope Canine will leave us alone when you are with us."  
She looked at the Doberman seriously. "I'm telling you this completely honestly. Now come on, the others are waiting."  
Actually, Blackheart would have preferred to enjoy the attention of Earth further, but the striped one was jumping off the sofa already.  
"How is Drop?" She asked Thistle softly.  
The golden eyes darkened.  
"The healers did everything, but she died before morning. Clover is devastated. Flight says she just lost her most recent litter."  
Earth bowed her head, eyes closed. Her tail hung limply. She sighed deeply.  
"... Who hunts with us?" The striped then asked in a low voice.  
Blackheart eyed her curiously.  
Apparently Earth was not here too often, so she could not have had a deep connection to "Drop". Still, the cat's death evidently hurt her deeply. Where did this compassion come from?  
The cat jumped elegantly from the sofa and joined the others. There were also three new ones. A light brown, white and orange striped and a blue-gray tomcat.  
"I am Sand." Said the first politely. "My name is Autumn." The second introduced himself. "And I'm called Night." Meowed the third cheerfully. "Good Hunt!"  
"Good Hunt." Earth and Thistle politely returned the greeting.  
"That's Blackheart and Johnny." Earth introduced the two of them. The three hunters nodded to the tomcat and the Doberman.  
Johnny nodded politely back while Blackheart pranced restlessly and kneaded the ground with his front paws.  
Blaze poked his flank.  
"Stop your wriggling and say hello!" He growled.  
"... 'ello." The black mumbled reluctantly and sat down. His claws worked the ground.  
"We'll go to the park." Thistle decided. "There we might have some peace and quiet from the BlackwayClan yet."  
"So, I'm your bodyguard, yes?" Johnny growled.  
Thistle's eyes flashed with amusement. "Exactly."  
"Would be something completely new!" Blackheart growled. Thistle touched him with the tip of her tail.  
"Do you have to be in a bad mood already?"  
"Hmpf!"  
The cat rolled her eyes. "Let's go. And see that you keep up."  
She turned around and started running at a considerable pace, with Earth and the three tomcats close behind her.  
To his own surprise, Blackheart had no trouble keeping up with Thistle. His four legs carried him in a brisk trot alongside the golden one. Behind him he heard Johnny panting and he had to buck up to not run faster.  
"He's not chasing you." He told himself. "Not today."  
Still, the feeling of being followed by a dog, a Doberman and Johnny Blaze gave him goosebumps.  
When they came out of the narrow alleyways into the open streets, the pack accelerated until the four-legged animals all raced along at top speed.  
They crossed a wide market place, where they scared a flock of pigeons.  
The gray bodies fluttered around their heads, rustling and pattering, scattering feathers and mites.  
For a moment, time seemed to stand still.  
The image of the flying doves and the floating feathers froze so Blackheart could see it in great detail.  
It was like running through a bubble of peace for a moment.  
Then the moment passed and they dashed on, across a street and a parking lot. Cars honked loudly as the pack swept past, but the animals hardly cared.  
It went on in groups of two, along a sidewalk, to the left and through the bushes - and they were back in the park._ _

__Green, lush grass and tall, mighty trees greeted them.  
Earth took a deep breath. "Aah..." She sighed. "Wonderful, that spring scent!"  
Blackheart eyed her sideways and sniffed cautiously.  
Yes, it smelled ... it actually did smell wonderful.  
Much better than the sulphurous haze that made up the atmosphere in hell.  
Once started, he couldn't stop.  
Blackheart sniffed and huffed and snuffled, turned and pushed his nose into the grass. Earth laughed when, following a whim, he threw himself backwards into the green carpet and wallowed in it, growling in pleasure. His legs kicked in the air, his tail lashed, and his mustache vibrated with delight.  
At the sight of him, Johnny started to laugh as well. However, this time he didn't laugh at Blackheart. The pure, devoted lust for life the demon showed so unexpectedly, simply made him happy.  
Blackheart paused for a moment, stretched, digging his thorn-like claws into the grass. Then his body curled up again like a yo-yo and he got up on this feet.  
Shook himself- and sneezed.  
"Bless you!" Thistle, Earth and Johnny called in unison. Then all three had to laugh.  
Blackheart raised his head and sniffed.  
He turned slightly to the left and checked the air again. In the next second, he was flat against the ground.  
In this position he crawled paw by paw towards the undergrowth between a group of trees.  
The other six watched him intensely.  
Suddenly he dashed off!  
One, two, three, four - top speed!_ _

__The tomcat ran like a cheetah.  
The hind legs overtook the front legs, the claws of the hind legs dug deep into the ground, the muscles of the thighs tightened like wire ropes and catapulted him forward; like an arrow he flew over the ground, getting twice his own body length behind him.  
The mouse didn't stand the slightest chance.  
Before she could even try to escape, he was over her and swiped.  
Blackheart had so much momentum that trying to brake he did a cartwheel, tumbling into the underbrush.  
Immediately he was on his feet again and threw himself on the mouse again. A quick bite broke the stunned animal's neck._ _

__Head held high with pride, Blackheart carried his first self-killed prey back to the others.  
"Well done!" Earth praised smiling. "Your technique is ... uhm ... unorthodox, but successful."  
Johnny cocked his head. The demon's blue eyes glittered at Earth's words.  
His gaze wandered to Thistle, who was smiling at him, then he looked at Johnny.  
A fence of past and recent events seemed to slide in front of his eyes. A fence of emotions.  
The animosity they both brought back from San Venganza. The common dilemma they had gotten into. The help the demon got from Johnny.  
Even more, that he had saved his life.  
Hesitantly, as if ashamed, Blackheart approached Johnny and put the mouse down at his feet. Then he took a few steps back, his head bowed. His tail lashed.  
Johnny raised his eyebrows in surprise.  
"And what's that when it's at home?!"  
The tomcat slowly raised his head and blinked both eyes as if it pained him to look directly at his enemy. His whiskers stood on end.  
"...I want to...thank you. You helped me when Canine's cats attacked me. Without you- Mmh."  
The tomcat blinked and looked away.  
Johnny's mouth opened in a half laugh of disbelief. "I beg your pardon?!"  
Blackheart growled.  
"And you think a MOUSE is enough?!"  
The blue eyes flashed.  
"I want to thank you, not apologize!"  
Johnny growled as well, although it sounded a lot creepier due to his finger-length teeth.  
He swept the mouse aside and took a few menacing steps towards Blackheart, who immediately scrambled backwards. The blue eyes were wide open in shock, filled with disbelief and the memory of the last clash which, to say the least, had turned out pretty shit for Blackheart.  
Filled with fear.  
It tasted sweet like ripe cherries on Johnny's tongue, parched from thirst for revenge.  
That was exactly how Blackheart had looked at him when he had felt the Penance Stare begin to work.  
"...You lousy little pile of shit." Growled the Doberman. "How much of your lip do you think you can afford with me yet?"  
Blackheart raised a paw as if to object, but was unable to utter a word.  
He just stared at Johnny.  
_"I could eat you, just like that."_ Blaze whispered.  
_"Because I am a dog...and you are a cat. I am big and you are small. And the world would be a little brighter without you."_  
The cats and tomcats all around remained in breathless silence.  
Blackheart's fur stood on end, he flattened his ears back against his head, showed his claws and hissed venomously. All signs of anger.  
But the look in his eyes gave him away.  
It was fear.  
Johnny had beaten him once before.  
And back then, Blackheart would have had a tremendous advantage if he hadn't made that crucial tactical mistake.  
Now the tide had clearly turned in Johnny's favor. In the case, Blackheart would only be able to defend himself against a Doberman with his claws and his teeth.  
An angry Doberman.  
Not good at all.  
"I'm the boss here." Johnny growled at the demon. "It showed in San Venganza and is still the case now. Never forget that again, **_Blackie."_**  
"Blackie" didn't have anything to say about that for the moment.  
He looked at him mouse. Looked back at Johnny with a defiant, intimidated look in his eyes. Looked at the mouse, turned his head briefly to Earth, flashed Blaze another quick glance, turned around and ran away.  
An angry hiss cut through the silence and a searing pain exploded on Johnny's face.  
The Doberman yipped.  
Earth gave him another vicious hiss, then followed Blackheart, her fur bristling.  
"... I take it you are not best of friends?" Sand meowed with raised eyebrows. Meanwhile, Autumn trudged over to the mouse and began to eat.  
"Did you see how fast he is?" He meowed with a full mouth. "I didn't know a cat could be that fast!"  
Thistle put her ears back. "Except for Chatanas." She growled. "She's that fast too. So far she was the only cat you knew who could reach that speed. Maybe there's more to the fry than you can see."  
Night shook himself. "Don't talk about her." He pleaded.  
Sand grinned. "Chatanas, Chatanas, Chatanas!"  
"Stop it, Sand!" The striped Autumn yelped in horror. "You'll attract a patrol!"  
Night ducked. "Like that one?" He whimpered.  
Johnny and the rest of them turned.  
A pack of seven menacing looking cats ran across the park.  
"This is your fault!" Autumn screeched at Sand. "What are we going to do now?!"_ _

__The tomcat ran as fast as he could. He just wanted to get away. How could he have let it get this far?!  
Blackheart remembered using and pushing the Hidden around, using Roxanne Simpson, Johnny's lady-love, as bargaining chip.  
It was all so ingeniously evil.  
And then he'd let Johnny get too close, allowed the Ghost Rider to use the gaze of punishment on the thousand souls of the contract.  
And now Blaze had deeply humiliated him in front of everyone!  
_Penance Stare_ , what kind of ridiculous name was that anyway?!  
Tears of helpless anger ran from the black's eyes as he stomped his searing anger into the ground. Clenching his teeth so hard it hurt his jaw, he dashed across the green area like a rocket.  
Every step that took him further away from Blaze felt good.  
He uttered a curse in Latin that would have made a Russian truck driver blush and accelerated a little more.  
It was good to feel that fiery anger pulsing through his veins. Much better than the confusion that had taken hold of him in the past few hours.  
"Blackheart! WAIT!!"  
The tomcat's ears swiveled backwards, and he slowed down briefly when he recognized Earth's voice. There it was again, this confusion.  
Blackheart realized that there were tears in his fur and whiskers and that Earth was the last one he wanted to see right now.  
"Wait, please! I can't go that fast!"  
"AH!" The demon roared, angry at himself for caring about her words.  
He braked with all four paws, stumbled a few steps, and dropped into the grass.  
He ran his paws over his face to remove the tears and then waited for Earth to reach him. It took a while._ _

__"Hey!" Earth said as she trudged over to him.  
She looked like she wanted to say more, but she couldn't manage anything.  
She sat down next to him. "... I know how you feel..." The striped began.  
Blackheart raised his head abruptly. "No, stop that!" He hissed at her. "Please stop that, you have NO IDEA how I feel!!"  
"Perhaps." Earth admitted. "But you can't always run away!"  
"Did you see his eyes?" The demon asked suddenly.  
"He hates me, Earth. He hates me with every fiber of his being!"  
"... He doesn't hate you." She contradicted gently. "He's just very angry. And just like you, he can't let go of that anger."  
"How should I do that? How scary is it when a **cat** romps off ?!"  
She shook her head with a smile.  
"I don't think you should have a tant-"  
A scream came from very close by.  
"What the-"  
Earth spun around. "... The others are in trouble! Come!"  
As fast as her paws carried her, she ran back.  
Blackheart was torn.  
On the one hand, he had less than no desire to go back to Johnny. If he was in a pickle- so much the better!  
But Earth would go there. And as reluctant as he was to admit it to himself, he didn't want anything to happen to her. Heaven knew why, but that was just how it was!  
Cursing, that a lightning bolt appeared in the cloudless sky, he hurried after the striped one._ _

__Thistle's otherwise very short, smooth fur stood so much on end, that it looked as if she were twice as big. She growled like a dog.  
Her tail flapped back and forth so furiously it lashed against her flanks. With narrowed eyes she stared at the tiger cat, who had positioned herself between the two groups and who eyed the gold one triumphantly.  
"Canine!" She hissed. There was an unmatched rage in that one word.  
"Thistle." Canine purred. "Where's your little sister?"  
The golden one extended her long claws and hissed murderously.  
Canine laughed.  
"And where is Aristocat? Have you lost him to a fox yet?"  
"Leave her alone." Johnny growled.  
The tiger cat licked her mouth with relish.  
"Ah, our super dog. How nice. I think you won't get away so easily this time."  
The Doberman smiled, baring two rows of sharp, sparkling white teeth.  
"Who says I want to?"  
"... I wouldn't goad her any more, if I were you, dog." Sand hissed at him.  
"Oh, leave him." Canine purred. "If the puppy wants to play ..."  
"The _puppy_ not necessarily." Thistle growled. Her eyes glowed aggressively.  
Canine smiled. "But you, yes?"  
"I'll show you how I PLAY!!" The golden one spit venomouosly and chopped her claws into the grass.  
"Keep cool, Thistle ..." Sand growled.  
"Don't provoke her!" Autumn added and ducked.  
Canine grinned. "Yes, Thistle, listen to your friends. You know how little this has helped you ... Just think of your poor mate... And you won't get your son back like that either..."  
A bloodcurdling cry broke out from Thistle. She crashed into Canine with outstretched paws and both fell on top of each other.  
Screeching with unbridled anger, the golden one hit the other cat with her claws, causing fur to fly like anything.  
Canine hissed like a viper as well, matching each hit with two.  
Blood spattered one the grass as Thistle's claws ripped the left ear of the tabby to shreds. Canine kicked her into the stomach and away.  
Thistle hardly seemed to realize, she jumped up again immediately and attacked again, her teeth bared.  
The cats rolled over the grass, tangled together, kicking and growling and spitting.  
The other four-legged animals hopped excitedly back and forth.  
"Go, Canine!" Shouted one of the Black Way Caln cats. "Tear her to pieces!"  
"Thistle!" Night yelped in horror. "Watch out!"_ _

__Canine reached out and pulled her claws over Thistle's thigh.  
The golden one shrieked, turned quickly and bit Canine just behind the ear into the back of the neck.  
With a hiss, the tabby dug her fangs into Thistle's tail.  
They stood like that for a moment, unwilling to let go of each other.  
Then a brown figure caught up to them and bowled them over.  
Earth.  
The cat ran an arc and rejoined her pack.  
Thistle and Canine got to their feet and stared at each other as if they wanted to be at each other's throats again immediately.  
"Hey, you skunks!!"  
The BlackwayClan cats turned around._ _

__Not far away, the green ground of the park rose steeply to a hilltop, only to drop again immediately. At the top of the hill a black cat with blue eyes had now appeared.  
Blackheart grinned insolently. The tip of his tail twitched.  
"Aristocat." Cooed Canine. "Oh, I think you know something I want to know ..."  
The demon cocked its head. "Indeed?"  
"Hmm ... I want to know where Flight and the rest are hiding."  
Blackheart smiled. "Okay, I know that."  
Johnny and the cats on his side gasped collectively.  
"Blackheart!" The Doberman hissed. He sounded incredulous, warning and pissed off. His voice was little more than a choked whisper.  
"But if you want me to tell you, you'll have to catch me first!"  
The cat winked at Johnny. Then he spun around and jumped down the slope.  
"Root, Branch! Follow me!" Canine yelped and raced after the tomcat.  
The two cats followed her.  
Four members of the BlackwayClan were now left, facing the pack of six from the others.  
They were four huge animals. But still...  
"ATTACK!!" Howled Thistle.  
The pack threw themselves on the BlackwayClan cats and beat the living daylights out of them.  
Soon after, the massive cats fled as fast as they could, badly torn and scratched.  
"Ha!" Earth exclaimed in a high-pitched voice and spat on the ground. "Get out of here, you badger-faced dog poos!!"_ _

__Thistle's ruffled fur flattened a little.  
"We have to help Blackheart! Come on!"  
"Yippie." Johnny growled. Then he sprinted after the five cats._ _

__Blaclkheart literally flew down the hill; only anxious to stay on his paws, he let the gravitational force regulate his speed.  
He plunged into the trees that formed a high wall behind the slope. The soft grass under the pads of his paws changed to bark and bits of wood, rough and prickly.  
Behind him he heard Canine howl an order.  
The BlackwayClan gave chase.  
So far so good. Now it was important not to get caught.  
The fact that Canine could catch him with tactical maneuvers alone, thanks to the overwhelming number of her cats, or that the opponents could take turns hunting and also knew the terrain inside and out, he deliberately kept away from his thoughts.  
He concentrated entirely on his paws and the path in front of him. It was as if a never-ending energy was streaming through his body from somewhere. It glowed like sunfire in his muscles, roared white in his head and pulsed in his eyes and ears.  
Running. Running. Faster and faster.  
With every powerful movement his claws dug into wood and bark, earth and moss, giving him the necessary hold to push off again. It was always the same rhythm.  
Strech out. Let the front paws touch down and catch up with the hind paws. Roll up and tense the whole body. Dig the claws into the ground. Then flying forward again and stretching. He flew like an arrow.  
The air hissed in his ears.  
But there was something else too.  
The hissing of cats, very close!_ _

__"There is an iron path in this forest!" Earth howled at Johnny. "We need to have a monster separate the clans, otherwise we'll never get rid of Canine!"  
The Doberman's eyes widened.  
The cat wasn't talking about a train, was she?!_ _

__Blackheart's ears swiveled back.  
There they came!  
Canine ran right behind him, the others spread out on either side.  
The tomcat took a deep breath and focused on a point between his eyes.  
The sun fire blazed brightly.  
They wouldn't catch him! He was faster than the wind!  
He raced between the trees with his tail outstretched, his legs flying, muscles flexing beneath the silky black fur.  
His heart pounded as wild joy flooded him. He had never felt so alive before.  
In front of him, the sun was painting bright spots on the forest floor as if to mark his path._ _

__The yowling and hissing became a little quieter.  
They fell back!  
Blackheart triumphed.  
Then out of nowhere, Canine appeared beside him. Her teeth were bared with anger.  
Her run was terrible to look at in its sleek, powerful elegance.  
Murderous lust flashed in her eyes. Amber coloured death.  
She jumped at him, claws extended.  
Both crashed into each other and tumbled to the ground, having been thrown so roughly off track. The tiger cat's long claws dug into Blackheart's thighs, back, chest, and stomach.  
He howled with shock and pain.  
The old wounds were torn open again.  
Then Canine rolled off him, carried by her own momentum.  
Panting, the tomcat got to his feet. His whole body was trembling.  
Suddenly, BlackwayClan cats appeared everywhere.  
Blackheart tried to escape with flying legs, but found no hold with his claws.  
Despite his wild pawing, he made no headway. One of the cats jumped up to him. At the last moment, the demon felt his claws dig into something solid and darted out from beneath the opponent's falling paw. His wounds thanked him with hellish burning.  
He jumped forward doggedly, ran on as fast as he could.  
Now fear gave him strength.  
His heart fluttered like a caged bird.  
He hurt all over.  
The collision had brought him out of his dream world, in which he briefly regained control and felt like himself again.  
He was a cat after all. Self-glorification and arrogance were of no use at the moment. Realism was required.  
And, realistically, he too only had four paws, that were exhausted slowly but surely.  
He might have to save his own skin yet by telling Canine what she-  
No.  
Something in him quietly but persistently objected to this solution.  
Running on was happening.  
Behind him, the Clan cats screeched and hissed angrily. And there was Canine, running level with him and actually **_as she ran_** lifting a paw to strike.  
Then, the howling resounded.  
A crescendo, bloodcurdling sound that curdled the blood in the veins.  
And it rang again. Urgent and daunting at the same time.  
Johnny.  
Blackheart kicked off once more with his hind legs, but pulled his front paws up so the rear ones hit the ground alone. He threw his whole body to the left, away from Canine.  
His paws dug a furrow in the earth as the maneuver completely killed his momentum.  
The second he finally came to a standstill, he tensed his protesting muscles again into a powerful leap that carried him to the left.  
He had changed direction like a rabbit.  
There, the creepy, drawn out howling again.  
Now it was in front of him.  
The tomcat demanded the last of his body.  
The pain bored into his consciousness, his muscles burned. He couldn't go on anymore.  
Where was the darn mutt?!  
The trees thinned in front of him.  
There was an unguarded level crossing! And a train was coming! On the other side was Johnny, his pointy snout raised to the sky, howling heartbreakingly.  
Next to him- Thistle, Earth and the three tomcats.  
They spotted Blackheart and started cheering for him excitedly.  
He couldn't understand their words over the noise of the approaching train, but he was evidently supposed to cross the tracks to meet them.  
By the stoning of Mary Magdalene and Judas' kiss, they must have gone mad!! He wasn't tired of life!  
Yet his run did not slow down.  
It was the only way.  
His eyes found Earth's gaze, which drew him like moths to the flame.  
His thinking shut off. He ran.  
The train was now very close. It was one of those hideous freight trains that were making the most noise. His ears ached.  
Canine let out a scream of rage behind him. She had understood.  
Blackheart once again gathered all his strength for the final sprint.  
The train was six meters away. Four.  
Three.  
The demon closed his eyes and jumped.  
The sound of the train flew towards him. He wouldn't make it.  
Then it was next to him.  
Goodbye, beautiful world.  
Then - unbelievably, it was behind him and was moving away.  
Blackheart's eyes opened. He was still alive.  
There was the floor, coming towards him.  
Maybe he'd brake his neck instead.  
Johnny jumped.  
His teeth grabbed the falling tomcat's neck fur and yanked him out of the air.  
Now he dangled under Johnny's mouth like a sack of potatoes. The entire pack turned to flee.  
The black felt the last ounces of his strength running out, and the pain and exhaustion overwhelmed him. Johnny carried him away.  
"...If Thistle comes with Godsmother again, I'll scratch her eyes out." Was his last conscious thought before he surrendered to the pleasant nothingness.  
Night fell._ _


End file.
